


The Letter

by angellwings



Category: Ugly Betty
Genre: F/M, Family, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Love, Love Confessions, Post-Series, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 17:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5937013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angellwings/pseuds/angellwings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Betty's reaction to Daniel's last "Letter from the Editor" leads to a serious talk with the man himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Letter

**Author's Note:**

> When the finale aired, ABC posted Daniel's last "Letter from the Editor" on the Ugly Betty site. It essentially confirmed Daniel's feelings for Betty and gave us Betty/Daniel fans something else to fangirl over. I saved it then and was suddenly inspired by it last month. I wanted to write Betty's reaction to the letter and how it would subsequently affect her and Daniel. So here it is. My take on what would happen should Betty read the letter.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> angellwings

He'd been in London two months before she finally saw  _it_. And  _he_  wasn't even the one who showed  _it_  to her. In those two months he'd apologized for skipping out on saying goodbye and then kept up the ex-boss/ex-assistant friendship that they'd spent the last year building up. Virtually nothing changed other than Daniel stumbling across his passion for digital publishing. The man who didn't even know how to tweet or update a status from his smart phone had suddenly become enamored with all things e-book. E-readers were the future of the print industry and Daniel planned to be in the forefront of the trend. Daniel and a college buddy of his, Christian, had started a business that would eventually assist publishing companies like Dunne and Meade with the transition from print to digital. He'd found what he'd been looking for. Something he could earn on his own and be passionate about.

But outside of his professional life,  _nothing_  had changed. Really,  _nothing_. They still shared a bagel and a coffee for breakfast every morning, only in her office instead of his. They still went out to lunch once a week and she was still his plus one (and vice versa) to most events. She didn't really know why this lack of a change bugged her. But it did. When he showed up in London two months ago and told her he was "sticking around" what did she expect to happen? She didn't really know, but she never thought their relationship would stay this... _static_. She could have sworn he'd intended for that first dinner they had to be a date, but he never made a move. He never talked to her about it or gave her any sort of indication of his intentions. It was beginning to seem like he'd chickened out, if he'd wanted to pursue her at all that is.

She was close to giving up on her suspicion and close to moving on-until she read  _it_. She got to her office that morning and started going through proofs and mock ups. This month's issue was about to go to print so she'd been in a red lining haze for the last week. She glanced at her watch in concern when Daniel's usual time to stop by came and went. Her phone buzzed from inside her desk drawer and she immediately checked it.

" _Sorry, can't make it this morning. Finally got that meeting with Hearst. Don't hate me, okay? Still on for tonight?"_

Despite him cancelling on her she beamed at her phone. He'd been trying to get a meeting with Hearst Publications for so long! It was a big step for him and Christian. She definitely wasn't mad.

" _No worries! Good luck with the meeting! I know you'll knock 'em dead! And yes. Are we meeting at the restaurant?"_

" _No, I'll pick you up. See you at 8."_

Her eyebrows lifted in slight surprise. Apart from that first dinner date, she and Daniel always met at whatever new restaurant they were trying. Granted, most nights they were both too swamped with work to have time to go home before dinner, but still...picking her up was actually pretty  _different_  for them.

" _Great! I'll be ready and waiting!"_

She winced after she pressed send. "Ready and waiting, Betty? Really?" She asked herself in a hushed tone. Could she have sounded more pathetic? She really needed more of a social life, if only to keep Daniel from thinking she was on her way to being a sad spinster lady. With 12 cats. Forever alone. She groaned and put her phone back in her desk drawer. So much for her exciting new life in London.

She picked up the pile of mail in her "in" basket on her desk and began flipping through it. It's not that she didn't have anything going for her. Her job was everything she'd hoped it would be and  _Provoke_  was flying off the stands. It was Dunne's top selling new title. Just that fact alone gave Betty renewed faith in her generation. They seemed to  _want_  to read intelligent features after all. She sorted her mail according to what was important and what wasn't. Fundraiser invitations were filed under important. She tried to send a representative from the magazine to each event. Samples from aspiring writers were set aside to be sent to her Managing Editor. He handled the recruiting. She just made the ultimate decision. Freebies from advertisers fighting for space in her magazine were put in the unimportant file. They only reviewed those if they had empty pages they needed to fill which hadn't been a problem for the third issue so far. Finally, she came to the last piece of mail: a large white envelope with  _Mode_ 's logo printed in bright orange above the return address. The address was printed on a label but scrawled quickly just above it was " _attn: Betty Suarez_ " in very familiar handwriting.

She ripped the envelope open and smiled fondly at the 100th Anniversary cover of  _Mode_. She'd never actually seen her last issue. Well, her  _and Daniel's_  last issue as it turned out. There was a bright yellow tab sticking out that read " _For you, my furry friend_ ". She bit her bottom lip and was tempted to flip straight to the tab, but she decided to flip through to Daniel's profile first. She'd written it and she knew exactly what it said, but she always enjoyed seeing her words in print on a page. It left her feeling... _complete_. She smiled fondly at Daniel's picture. The one she'd helped him choose that late night at the  _Mode_  offices. Something had felt different that night between them. She'd never been able to put her finger on it, but she knew it had to do with the way Daniel had looked at her. There was something in his eyes she'd never noticed before. Something she still saw in him on occasion.

_Finally_ , she flipped to the tab. There was a post it on the page that read  _"Read this, it's from your LOV-AH."_ She rolled her eyes. Obviously, this was from Amanda and Marc. They're the only people who can make insults and biting sarcasm somehow seem affectionate. She pulled the post-it note off the page and grinned at what was behind it. Daniel's last "Letter From the Editor".

That  _it_  from earlier? This was  _it_.

Why hadn't she tried to track this down before? She'd always loved his letters and it amazed her that it had taken her this long to get around to his last one. Her eyes moved eagerly across the printed words and she smiled faintly as she read:

" _A hundred years is plenty of time for a lot to happen in anything. Political powers change hands and change back again, cultural movements evolve into something completely different, whole empires rise and fall. And yet, this is somehow even truer for the world of fashion..."_

So far so good, she thought as she read further. He sounded charming and intelligent and he even made a friendly joke about Wilhelmina. He'd transitioned into his resignation nicely, she thought. He didn't directly state it but it was enough of an allusion to make it clear. And then...

And then the letter got a little strange. Where was he going with this? Why was he asking the  _Mode_  readers about a 'friend'? She started to fear his letter was unraveling and losing its focus. He didn't seem to be speaking to the readers any more. His tone had shifted. Why was he talking about a friend getting a makeover?

And suddenly she froze. The next sentence stopped her cold. It became clear to her, so clear, that he wasn't just talking about any friend. He was talking about  _her_.

" _Or perhaps that friend was undergoing her own life change, one in which she would no longer be present in your life, compelling you to make your own change to keep her in it, even if it were in a new context."_

Who else could he be referring to, but her? But what did he mean by 'new context'? Did he mean their transition from Editor-in-chief and Assistant to friends and co-workers? Why hadn't he expressed any of this  _to her_?

" _Just as important: Maybe the change was an internal one. Maybe you realized you were no longer interested in maintaining your status quo. Perhaps you wanted to try new challenges not only in your professional life, but also in your personal one. Or maybe one day something just changed inside you in the way you saw that good friend, causing you to want her to be more than, well, just a friend."_

Her breathing hitched and she stared wide eyed at the words on the page. Why was he admitting this to  _Mode_  readers and not her? He'd had two months to say these things to her and he hadn't. He'd left them on the page for strangers to see.  _Strangers_  knew how he felt about her before  _she_  did. She felt a mixture of panic and anger and...elation? Was that what that last feeling was? Something inside her did seem to feel a bit  _joyful_  at this revelation, but mostly she was angry and confused. Why hadn't he said anything? She took a deep breath and kept reading. There was just one last paragraph. Maybe she'd find an explanation for his silence there.

" _Often the changes in attitude that are the most powerful are rooted in causes that come from without and within. When that unusual synergy occurs, love is often the result. And take it from me: Love is the one attitude that never goes out of fashion. "_

Nope, definitely not an explanation. And she certainly didn't feel any less angry.  _Love_. Was he saying he  _loved_  her? He loved her and he hadn't said or done anything in two months except take her to dinner that one time? What did that mean? What was she supposed to do  _now_? Oh God, how did she feel about him? Did she want the same things? There was a battle going on inside of her to determine whether or not she was angry, happy, or...both. She had originally expected something to change between her and Daniel when he came to London. She didn't even have a good explanation as to why she expected that. She just did. Maybe it had to do with the way he'd looked at her that night in the  _Mode_ offices. Or the emotion she read in his eyes when she turned down his offer for a promotion. Or the fact that he hadn't said goodbye. If she'd meant less to him then he would have seen her off to the airport or been at one of her two going away parties. She'd recognized all of these things and she'd expected something to change between them. She just never knew what or how. She'd never put together all the pieces...

Until now.

Daniel Meade loved her. Yes, their relationship hadn't changed since he'd arrived. Not in any majorly noticeable way. But the little things she'd noticed during her last few days in New York were still there. The way he looked at her, the way he spoke to her, and the way he regarded her opinion. All of those things were different. The real question was...what did she feel about  _him_?

She thought about his blue eyes when they looked at her, and the way his hand always found the small of her back when they walked into a room together, or the way he'd insisted on hearing her opinion while he was shopping around for a new home in London. She thought about how he'd changed from the guy she'd met on her first day at work. The guy who knew he'd been set up to fail so didn't bother to try. He wasn't that guy anymore. He found his ambition and his passion and he'd...settled down. He was responsible (though still impulsive as ever), he actually planned things in advance (he had a five year business model that he'd  _excitedly_  shown her), and he'd let go of that playboy facade he'd used as a defense (he'd told her on several occasions in the last two months he was no longer going for the obvious, which brought back memories of a totally different conversation from years ago.) He'd become, well, the man she always knew he could be. She smiled warmly to herself and placed a hand on her B necklace before glancing up at her office ceiling thoughtfully.

"What do you think, mom?" She asked the empty room. "Do I love him?"

"Hell yes, you do."

Betty's head quickly turned toward her doorway to find a smirking Christina staring at her. "Christina! I, uh, what are you-Did we have an appointment?"

Christina ignored Betty's question and chuckled at her. "You finally found his final Letter from the Editor, did you? Took you long enough."

"Well, I-actually-Marc and Amanda sent it to me," Betty told her.

"Ah, clears a lot of things up, doesn't it?" Christina asked with a knowing smile.

"I suppose," Betty said slowly before she remembered she'd been angry as well as overjoyed. "But why couldn't he say any of this  _to me_? He can lay it all out there for total strangers to read but he can't tell me? He's been here two months and he's only taken me out on an actual date once.  _Once_."

"Oh, please," Christina said with a laugh. "Your weekly lunches stopped being friend outings a long time ago. Has he ever once let you pay? In eight weeks, Betty, has he ever let you pay?"

She blushed and shook her head. "Well, no. We fight over it for about ten minutes and then I usually have to cave."

"Uh huh and why would  _you_  take him as your plus one when you've got that Gavin bloke buzzing about? If things weren't so  _involved_  with Daniel you wouldn't use those charity events as excuses to spend time with him," Christina said with a knowing parental look. "Don't deny it, love. Daniel's taken you out on plenty of dates in the last few weeks and you've enjoyed every one of them. Also, with the look I saw on your face when I walked in here I'm beginning to think Gavin's going to be very disappointed. He's never going to get his chance with the beautiful Ms. Betty Suarez. Better let him down easy, deary."

"Christina, this is so strange!" Betty exclaimed as she stood from her desk and began to pace. "Just this morning I was thinking nothing would ever change. That Daniel really did just come here to start over. To find his passion. That  _I_  had nothing to do with it. But now..."

"Now you've realized what all of us realized  _months_  ago. That he did come for his passion, Betty, and that passion...is  _you_. Daniel Meade loves Betty Suarez. Bet old Mr. Meade is really laughing it up from the great beyond now, don't you?" Christina said with a wink. "The girl he thought wouldn't tempt his son is the one who ended up with his heart. It's extremely poetic, I think. Now you just have to answer one last question for yourself, Suarez. Does Betty love Daniel?"

Betty didn't have to answer. Not to Christina. Christina already knew the truth.

"How about a bagel and a coffee while you process everything?" Christina asked with a kind smile. "My treat."

Betty grabbed her coat and her purse and nodded. "Thank you, Christina."

"What else are best friends for if not to point out the obvious?" Christina asked her with a teasing grin.

* * *

Betty was ready long before Daniel was supposed to pick her up. She'd spent most of her extra time pacing and trying to figure out how to handle her new found knowledge. Did she just blurt it out? What if Daniel had changed his mind since then? Could it be his initial thoughts of "love" were a knee jerk reaction to losing a good friend and once things calmed down he'd realized he'd been a bit impulsive? Maybe that's why he hasn't said anything.

Or it could be that he's just chicken and is afraid she'll run away.

Which if she's honest, she knows would have been a big possibility two months ago. Finally after nearly a half hour of pacing and thinking there was a knock at her door. She jerked it open and hurriedly pulled Daniel inside. He blinked at her as the door closed behind him. "Nice to know you're so eager to see me."

She didn't look happy, Daniel noted. She looked…blank.

"Um, Betty?" He asked fearfully.

She suddenly picked up a magazine from her coffee table and smacked his shoulder with it repeatedly.

"Ow! Ow!  _Ow!_  Betty, what the hell?"

She then shoved the magazine she'd hit him with in his face. "What the hell? What  _the hell_? Daniel! You wrote a Letter to the Editor in your last issue of Mode that was  _about me_  and then didn't tell me. You let who knows how many strangers read about your feelings for me and yet  _never actually told me about them!_ "

His eyes focused on the cover and then winced at the sight of the 100th anniversary issue of  _Mode_. "Y—you read that?"

"I got a copy in the mail from Marc and Amanda so, yes; I just read it this morning. And in the two months that you've been here you've never told me  _any_  of what you said in the letter!  _Two months_! You chased after me two months ago and yet  _strangers_  know more about your feelings for me than I do! You big ridiculous dummy!" Betty yelled as she smacked him with the magazine one more time. "Why haven't you said  _anything_? You came all the way to London and made me think  _something_  was going to change and then _nothing_  did."

She brought her arm back to smack him with the magazine again but this time Daniel caught her wrist. He looked amused and surprised all at once and Betty huffed. If he thought he was going to get out of this by looking completely adorable then he was sorely mistaken.

"Let me get this straight," Daniel said slowly. "You were expecting something to change when I showed up?"

"You asked me to dinner. Well, okay, you didn't  _ask_ , but that was the point! You  _stated_  you were going to take me to dinner and then even before I left sometimes…sometimes when you looked at me it just  _felt_  different. Neither of those things had ever happened with us before. And not only that but I had your mother's vague words in my head—"

"What words? What did my  _mother_  say to you?" Daniel asked curiously.

"Nothing too clear," Betty said as she shook her head at the memory. "Just enough to plant the idea."

"That sounds like her," Daniel said with a chuckle.

"Daniel! This is not funny! How could you tell total strangers about your feelings and not  _me?"_ Betty asked with a glare.

"This is a completely new situation for me, Betty. I've never gone from friends to, well, whatever the hell this is. I guess, I just sort of hoped you'd be able to read between the lines," Daniel said with a sigh.

"I know I'm smart but I'm not a mind reader," Betty said with an amused smile. "A little honesty goes a long way, Daniel."

He huffed. He didn't believe her. She could tell. He glanced at her skeptically before he spoke up again. "Okay, fine. Let's test that theory. Let's say two months ago, when we were standing on those steps at Trafalgar or eating at the restaurant that night, I had been completely honest with you and told you everything I was feeling. You don't think you would have run away? You can say confidently that it wouldn't have freaked you out?" Betty bit her bottom lip and looked down at the floor under Daniel's measuring gaze. "Come on, Betty, I know you. I know you better than nearly anyone. If I had been completely honest with you that day it would have ruined everything."

She blushed and shook her head. "Even if you weren't completely honest  _that day_ , you've had plenty of time since then!"

"Yes," he said honestly as he sat down on the arm rest of her couch. "And I've been using it to my advantage. You know me as well as I know you. I had to prove to you that things were different. That  _I_  was different. I'm not the Daniel Meade you met four years ago. I'm not even the same Daniel I was this time last year, actually. I wanted you to see that before I…well before I laid it all on the line."

Betty sucked in a breath and nodded slowly. He did know her. He knew her  _very well_. Hadn't she just been thinking that he'd…settled down since arriving in London? Everything he'd done in the last two months had allowed her to see him differently. To see him as more than her ex-boss and best friend or the guy she'd had to save from hundreds of scrapes in the past. Not only that but she could see now that he'd thrown out subtle hints regarding how he felt about her. He also hadn't been on a single date since he'd arrived and he was  _Daniel Meade_ , after all. She was certain he'd had offers. The realization of just how calculated his actions and motives had been in the last two months suddenly hit her.

Daniel had been trying to woo her. Not with jewelry or flowers or candy, but by proving to her he could be the guy she needed him to be. He knew her far too well. She heard him breathing slowly and could see out of the corner of her eye that he was bouncing his knee up and down anxiously. He was waiting for her to say something. How long had she left him silence?

"So, do you think you've sufficiently proven yourself to me yet?" Betty asked with a soft smile.

He let out the breath he'd been holding and stood up. "You tell me. Is there anything else you need to know?"

"No," Betty said with a grin. "No, I'm good. I'm also ready for some good old fashioned honesty. What about you, Daniel?" She asked pointedly.

"Honesty," Daniel said with a slow inhale and exhale. "Okay, honesty. I can do that. Not a problem. Just don't run, okay? I'm not sure I could take that."

She nodded and met his hesitant gaze with her own determined one. "I'm not going anywhere. Promise."

"Do you remember Hilda's speech at her wedding? About love?" Daniel asked.

Betty bit her bottom lip and squinted thoughtfully. "Not really."

"Well, I do. Every word," Daniel told her. " _That's love, right? When you know somebody better than they do and you would do anything in the world to protect them,"_ he repeated Hilda's words softly and then scratched the back of his neck. "I'd just spent the entire week acting like an ass because I was trying to protect you from  _Henry._ Deep down I probably knew you'd come to the right conclusion all on your own, but I couldn't bear the risk of being quiet about it. You'd outgrown Henry, only you couldn't see that. And I  _knew_  you couldn't see that. You have trouble seeing anything exceptional in yourself, Betty. Even when the whole world tells you that you are, in fact, exceptional." He paused and smiled warmly at her. "We're going to have to work on that." Daniel gave her a meaningful glance full of promise and hope before returning to his story. "But after hearing those words, I knew. If I wasn't already in love with you then it was just a matter of time before I would be. It changed... _everything_. For me, at least. Before I wouldn't have questioned whether I was good enough for any woman, but you…Betty you're so damn  _good_. You're genuinely good. Not for the sake of your reputation and not because you believe doing good will earn you good. You do good simply because it's  _right_. And you're brilliant. I wasn't kidding when I told you that you intimidate me. You do. You're capable and determined and were able to get more done, purely on your own, in four years than I'd been able to do my  _whole life_. I don't even want to think about what would have happened to me if you'd never come to  _Mode_."

He stopped and smiled ruefully at her for a moment. She could  _see_  the potentially bitter sentence that was about to escape his lips. Instinctively, she knew what was coming next.

"Daniel, you would have been fine," Betty lied.

He quirked a brow at her. "No, I wouldn't have been. Wilhelmina would have chewed me up and spat me out in a month, maybe two if I'd been extra determined."

"That's not true," Betty said with a sigh. "You always think less of yourself than you should. I don't understand. It's always been that way. Daniel, you were good at that job! Genuinely good. You told me once before that it's not how you get the opportunity it's what you do with it. You worked hard and you made  _Mode_  better. Not just  _Mode_  but Meade Publications as a whole. Yet every time someone tells you that you brush it off and attribute everything to Wilhelmina or, worse,  _me_. Why do you do that?"

"Because you and Wilhelmina earned your jobs," Daniel said with a sigh. "Mine was given to me by a father who wanted me to be someone else."

"Daniel," Betty said with a huff as she stepped closer to him. "You  _do_  remember why I was hired, don't you?"

He winced. "How can I forget?"

"My qualifications, whatever they were, did not get me the job as your assistant. My looks, or lack thereof,  _did_. You talk like I walked into an interview and my resume wowed the room. I didn't even have an interview. I waited in the lobby and was then turned away the second the interviewer saw me. The next time I heard anything about any job was when I got the call saying I was your new assistant. That's it. That's exactly how that happened. So, really, I didn't earn anything. I was there to keep anyone else from distracting you," Betty said honestly. He was actively avoiding looking at her in favor of the carpet in her living room. Betty sighed and then continued. "So, once again, Daniel, it's not how you get the opportunity, it's what you do with it. And  _you_  proved yourself. If you didn't Wilhelmina wouldn't have felt so threatened or had such a hard time getting rid of you."

He scoffed and Betty glared at him.

"It's true, Daniel. I wish you'd realize that," she told him quietly.

"How did this get turned on me?" Daniel asked. "I thought this was  _my_  confession?"

She quirked a brow at him. "It is, but I can't stand by and let you diminish something you worked hard to accomplish. It's not fair to you."

He smiled warmly at her and then reached out for one of her hands. "Can I continue with my story now, please?"

She blushed and ducked her head as he laced his fingers through hers. "Sorry, go ahead."

"When I realized what was happening I suddenly felt very unworthy of you and I wanted to prove to you that I could be, but then…"

"Then I told you I was leaving," Betty said knowingly.

He nodded. "If you left how would I be able to prove that to you? I didn't have the time anymore," he said with a sigh before he chuckled and then shook his head. "So, I went a little crazy. I acted like an insane idiot and tried to hold you back from something that I  _knew_  would be good for you. And then I did something even worse, I didn't say goodbye. I just let you leave without a farewell because I…well I couldn't admit to myself that you'd be gone and that I'd lose you before I had a real chance to have you."

"So, what made you decide to come to London?" She asked curiously. He'd originally said that it was a good place to start over, but now she wondered how much of his real reason had to do with her.

"Well, first off, I couldn't leave things the way we did. Here I was, thinking I cared for you and yet I'd been cruel. I'd let my instincts for self preservation get in the way of being there for you. So I came to apologize. But, as you've read in my last letter, I realized I didn't want to give up. I mean, what was an ocean to a Meade?" Daniel asked with a grin.

"So, you came for me?" Betty asked nervously.

"I came for you," Daniel said with a nod. "But I stayed for me. While I was here making things up to you I realized I'd never be able to feel like I'd  _earned_ a career in the U.S. There are too many companies who want to be in Meade Publications good graces. But  _here_  Meade's footprint is smaller. We have a limited number of titles in the European market. My career could be my own here. It  _is_  my own here. Having you nearby was a very happy bonus. I'd be able to earn my own resume  _and_  prove to you that I could be who you needed me to be. All at the same time. It was too perfect to pass up."

"Well, Mr. Meade," She said as she caught his eyes with her own gaze. "Now that you've accomplished goal one and goal two, what's next?"

"I guess that's up to you," Daniel told her as he pulled her closer. "I love you, Betty. You might as well know now. If we do this-If you want to try being more than just…whatever we are right now—then I'm in this for keeps. And if  _you're_  not then, I can wait. In fact, I  _will_  wait if you need me to. Just say the word."

She held his hand tighter and then thread her other hand through his too. "You don't need to wait, Daniel. Really. Everything's been coming on so gradually that I didn't even realize what was happening, until today. That's why I was so upset with you. I'd realized I was in love with you and then here you were keeping your feelings such a big secret. I thought that if you'd told me sooner I would have realized what was happening to me sooner and then…then we wouldn't have wasted so much time. You know?"

He smiled brightly and nodded. "I know what you mean, but, Betty, I'm  _certain_  that we have the rest of our lives to make up for it. I didn't want to rush anything. Not with you."

"So," Betty said with a bright smile. "About dinner tonight…"

"Yes?" Daniel asked with a grin.

"Was it supposed to be a date?"

"Whether it was supposed to be or not, it certainly is now," Daniel said with a chuckle.

Betty took a deep breath and nodded. "Good. Just so you know, I'm glad you came after me, Daniel. And I'm glad you stayed."

"Me too," Daniel said with a smirk. "I mean, I got the girl, didn't I?"

Betty laughed and smacked his shoulder. "Shut up. You don't  _have me_  yet, Daniel. You've still got to survive the first date."

"Survive?" He asked with a laugh. "Are you planning on torturing me?"

"Not torturing you. Just testing you," Betty said with a chuckle.

"Haven't you done enough of that in the last four years?" Daniel asked teasingly.

"Never," She said with a smirk as she nervously brought her hands up to his shoulders. There was something intimately romantic about the gesture now. She'd hugged him a million times before but now putting her arms around him felt drastically different. She liked it. A lot.

His arms went around her waist and she heard him sigh contentedly and he relaxed as he pulled her even closer. She couldn't help but think that he must have been waiting to do this for a very long time. She realized there must be something else he'd been waiting to do for a long time too. She bit her bottom lip and looked up at him nervously. No reason she should make him wait any longer for it, was there? Her arms slid from his shoulders to his neck and she leaned into him just a bit more.

He gave her a curious look and she smiled coyly at him before she suddenly pulled his lips down to meet hers. Daniel tensed for a moment before he smiled against her lips and pulled her as close as he could. He deepened the kiss eagerly and drew it out for several moments before he finally pulled away.

"If that was a test," Daniel said with a smile and a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "Then feel free to test me as often as you want. I promise I won't mind."

Betty laughed and blushed bright red as she hid her face in his chest. She looked up at him after a moment and smiled shyly. "Weren't we going to dinner or something?"

"Oh, I don't think I'm that hungry anymore," Daniel said with a smirk as he leaned forward for another kiss. Betty held up her hand to stop him and leaned away with a laugh.

"You may not be but I'm starving. We can continue this later," She said as she stepped away from him but kept a hold on his hand. "Let's go."

"Yes, ma'am. Whatever you say," Daniel said with a Cheshire cat-like grin. Oh yes, Daniel really liked London. So far it had been much better to him than New York had ever been.


End file.
